Hanson driver pleads guilty to striking, killing Hanover nurse

Kathleen M. Vitello, 54, was charged in 2016 for fatally striking 32-year-old Amanda Turner Russell, as Russell took a training run along a Hanson street. Vitello pleaded guilty on Oct. 20 in Brockton Superior Court.

Lane Lambert The Patriot Ledger @llambert_ledger

HANOVER – Almost two years after she was charged, a Hanson woman has pleaded guilty to fatally striking popular Hanover nurse Amanda Turner Russell with her car, as Russell was taking a training run along a street in her town.

Kathleen M. Vitello, 54, pleaded guilty in Brockton Superior Court on Oct. 20 to one count of motor vehicle manslaughter, for hitting Russell with her 2004 Nissan Altima on Dec. 23, 2015. Russell was 32 and the mother of and eight-year-old boy.

Beth Stone, a spokeswoman for Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz, said Judge Robert Gordon sentenced Vitello to six to eight years in state prison. Prosecutors had asked for a seven to 10-year sentence.

Stone said investigators determined that Vitello was under the influence of methadone, Adderall, Xanax and Valium when she struck Russell.

Before her plea, Vitello had also faced a second charge, motor vehicle homicide while driving under the influence of drugs.

Russell was a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. She was taking a noon-time training run for the 2016 Boston Marathon along Winter Street, near the Hanover-Hanson line, when she was struck.

Vitello’s car was headed in the opposite direction when it crossed the center line, hit Russell, and crashed into a utility pole. The crash snapped the pole and temporarily left 480 customers without power.

Vitello was taken to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth for treatment. Russell suffered brain and spinal cord injuries. She was first treated at Brockton Hospital, then flown to a Boston hospital. She died there on Dec. 29. She was 32.

She’s survived by her son Gavin, who’s now 10, and her parents, Allan and Sarah Turner of Hanover.

Russell started working at Beth Israel as a part-time medical assistant in 2001. She joined the nursing staff in 2006, after she graduated from Curry College in Milton.

Beth Israel established a memorial fund for her soon after she died. The fund is used for the obstetrics-gynecology department.

Hanson police and the Cruz’s office investigated the accident for six weeks before they issued an arrest warrant. Vitello turned herself in to Hanson police. She was being held on $50,000 cash bail when she was indicted in April 2016.